Eunice Beck, RN, on Chronic Fatigue Syndrome & Fibromyalgia: Whats In a Name?
Dear Friends, Linguistics is defined as a study of sound, structure, meaning, vocabulary, and development of language. How words are used has certainly caused a great deal of difficulty for many of us. That the disease we have has been named chronic fatigue syndrome has done a great disservice to all of us. Most people in our society are “chronically fatigued.” None of us can imagine comparing that to the devastating exhaustion, weakness and pain that encompass our lives. Finally, I think linguistics may be in our favor. In a recent article quoted on the Co-Cure email newsgroup, Dr. James Le Fanu was quoted regarding CFS symptoms in teenagers. He said “Teenage symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome are in the brain – not in the mind.” “There can be few more grievous misfortunes than to be struck down by an illness that your doctor does not believe in.” “Most now recognise, albeit belatedly, that chronic fatigue syndrome, or ME, involves a devastating disturbance of the brain’s functionin
